I do enjoy the reader comments on the CBC News site.
As with many (most?) similar sites, the comment threads are populated chiefly by people who harbour opinions on the more extreme ends of whatever spectrum is at issue. There are also a lot of single-issue folks on the BC site, who will blame ANY problem on the provincial government / its leader, Gordon Campbell / the Olympics / the Vancouver Police and their trigger-happy Taser fingers.
The best part is the ability of commenters and lurkers to “Agree” or “Disagree” with each comment. If you’ve ever got a few minutes to spare, try leaving a comment, and see how long it takes for someone to disgree with:
a) a quantitative question (i.e. not one with a yes/no answer, but rather “how many?” or “which year?”)
b) a factual, objectively correct statement backed up with references
c) a completely innocuous or obvious comment (“my sympathies to the family”, “murder is bad”, etc).
Extra points if someone replies to your comment and mentions the government / Campbell / the Olympics / Tasers.
The only time I ever wade in (other than hitting “Agree” or “Disagree”) is when the news concerns a scientific issue, and commenters are asking specific questions or spreading inaccuracies. For example, I remember leaving a comment on one of the (still unsolved) mystery-of-the-floating-feet articles, explaining why DNA analysis can’t tell you someone’s race.
The comments on today’s sciency articles gave me a couple of big belly laughs. But I don’t think I’ll be responding.
How to even begin to craft a response to this comment on an article about the H1N1 flu?
Of course it's hit B.C. schools. It's a man made virus, released into the public, to be controlled by a man made vaccine, whenever they have it ready. How else can they make their pandemic real? This so called pandemic has been hyped up in the news ad naseum, but with a purpose. To incite fear and population control. Do I believe it's going to be bad? Absolutely. Just as planned. Do I believe a lot of people will die from the vaccine. Absolutely. Maybe even more than from the flu.
And how to possibly, ever, better this comment on an article about the (alleged) end of the devastating pine beetle infestation?[1]
The last time there was this much speculation about whether or not a beetle was dead it was Paul. Koo Koo katchoo
Genius.
1 If true, it’s only because they’ve run out of trees to kill.
So Mission Impossible 2 wasn’t a work of fiction then?
Oh, is that why that sounded familiar?
I actually walked out of that film – I was very jet lagged, and the crazy camera work made me feel physically ill. But I think I saw the rest of it on video at some point. Apparently it wasn’t very memorable!
I’ve heard that flu conspiracy theory before – but not from someone clever enough to know how to punctuate a third-person neutral pronoun contraction correctly.
LOL! And he/she used “their” correctly, and got the capitalisation right throughout the entire comment. Although I’ve never seen British Columbia written as “B.C.” – “BC” is the standard. And there seems to be a question mark missing.
Overall, 9/10 for grammar, 10/10 for crazy.
CBC seems to attract the nut cases – I remember reading a story about how Canada really sucks in the summer Olympics, and there were some very strong opinions about why that is. It can be entertaining, but gets annoying quickly! đ
I think it’s a little bit scary how many nut cases there actually are out there đ
Cath – I disagree.
Me too.
Alyssa, it’s definitely something to dip into occasionally! Maybe if you spend too much time there, you turn into One Of Them.
Anna, I guess at least the news sites keep them off the streets!
Frank and Richard, well, DON’T DISAGREE WITH THE VANCOUVER POLICE, THEY’LL TASE YOU!!!!!!!!! THAT’S WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU VOTE FOR CAMPBELL!!!!!!!
blogs
Youtube and Facebook are the heart of social media and can’ t promote themselves? YouTube does not offer badges to be displayed on blogs/ sites and the Facebook fan page one does not work. That is poorâŚ
The pine beetle thing is scary for those of use surrounded by dead trees going into fire season. And yes, in many areas they have run out of trees to kill.